


Convergence 5/7

by Soledad



Series: Beautiful Minds [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Five Times, Smart Is The New Sexy, beautiful minds, icemanverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 22:31:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2205438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soledad/pseuds/Soledad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Toshiko Sato didn't sleep with John Watson and one time she did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Convergence 5/7

**PART 5 – A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA**

The aftermath of the Irene Adler affair is _not_ pleasant. Sherlock has apparently accepted the lie about _The Woman_ having got herself into some witness protection scheme in the USA and seems to have shrugged off the whole thing with his usual indifference. But Irene has bested him in _almost_ everything, and John has known him long enough to realise that he’s still bothered by his near-failure and still cannot quite understand how it could have happened.

“Sometimes I truly wonder if any of those old families have ever realised that we’ve reached the twenty-first century,” Toshiko says thoughtfully on the evening of John’s fateful encounter with Mycroft at _Speedy’s_. “They send their sons into those all-boys public schools at the most vulnerable age ‘cos it’s supposedly so good for building connections.”

“Isn’t it?” John asks. He’s refused the obligatory Scotch and is sipping tea with her.  
  
“Well, it perhaps is,” Toshiko allows. “I’m a woman and a foreigner at that, what do I know? I spent quite a few of my school years in Osaka. But it also means that those boys won’t even see a girl their own age until they finish school, save for the vacations. They may slip out to go to the hookers when they reach a certain age – I suppose it must be a rite of passage for them. But that doesn’t prepare them to deal with women who might be their equals. And against someone like Irene Adler, a posh boy like Sherlock would be defenceless. She’d appear to him terrifying as an army with banners. And twice as appealing, I guess, as he is without arms or armour to withstand the onslaught and would find it exhilarating.(1)”

“Sherlock is not a child,” John reminds her. “I’m fairly sure that he… _dabbled_ while living on the street.”

Toshiko nods. “As an experiment, perhaps. Under controlled circumstances; and then decided that it wasn’t his thing. But one can’t mention Irene Adler and _controlled_ at the same breath, right? She’s so far above any man’s control it isn’t even measurable.”

“She’s also dead,” John says, because she’s one of the few people who know the truth.

Toshiko looks at him intently. “Do you really believe that? Do you _really_ think Sherlock would allow her to be executed?”

“You mean he’s known the truth all the time?” John asks. That he was manipulated by Mycroft into lying to Sherlock about Irene’s fate bothers him very much.

Toshiko smiles. “No offence, John, but you’re a lousy liar. You couldn’t even fool _me_ , let alone Sherlock.”

“Then why did Mycroft want _me_ to tell Sherlock?” John asks forlornly.

Toshiko shrugs. “Perhaps he _wanted_ Sherlock to know and chose the indirect method of telling him. Who knows? I stopped asking why Mr. Holmes does or doesn’t do things years ago.”

“So Sherlock _knows_ she’s dead?” John murmurs.

“Is she?” Toshiko asks quietly.

It’s John’s turn to shrug now. “Mycroft said he was thorough this time. That it would take Sherlock Holmes to fool him.”

“Exactly,” Toshiko replies.

John shakes his head. “Impossible. He couldn’t have left England without Mycroft’s knowledge.”

That earns him another eyeroll. “Oh, for God’s sake, John, you really believe Sherlock would have travelled to Pakistan of Afghanistan or any other Islamic country? You do read the papers every day; you must have realised that there’s been quite a deal of home-grown terrorism in the UK lately. Making extremist videos dressed like the Taliban is very popular with people who are using religion as a way of venting their anger at the world.”

“So, why didn’t they blow up something then?” John asks. “Isn’t that what terrorists usually do?”

Toshiko nods thoughtfully. “Established terrorist groups, yes. But if they’ve newly emerged and are aiming for foreign sponsors, this was probably the cleverest thing to do. Think about it: Irene Adler hit the international headlines. She’s become a celebrity; everyone would recognise her. She also represents something that true fundamentalists would find utterly disgusting and disruptive.”

“They’re not the only ones thinking that,” John mutters angrily. “But if Mycroft wanted the terrorists to get rid of Irene for him, why didn’t he stop Sherlock?”

He feels the mother of all stress-related headaches coming his way. Toshiko shrugs.

“Perhaps he didn’t think Sherlock could infiltrate the group and get to her in time. Again, who knows? The two of them have been playing this game all their lives; we’re spectators at best. Spectators that aren’t given all the pieces to put the puzzle together because we aren’t _supposed_ to know. He gave you the official MI5 version of Miss Adler’s demise, and he will stick to it, no matter what.”

“Do you think Mycroft knows what Sherlock did?” John asks and Toshiko nods without hesitation.

“There are very few things on this planet that Mr. Holmes _doesn’t_ know; none of them within the UK.”

“Why the whole farce about the witness protection scheme then?” John has rarely been so confused in his life. “Why send me to Sherlock with a transparent lie when both knew the truth? The _whole_ truth.”

Toshiko thinks about it for quite some time.

“I think it’s a truce,” she finally replies. “Sherlock now knows that Mr. Holmes knows what he did; but it also means that if Sherlock agrees never to see Miss Adler again. Mr. Holmes won’t pursue her anymore.”

“And you seriously believe Sherlock would keep up his end of the bargain?” John is understandably doubtful. “Or Mycroft, for that matter?”

“Sherlock likes to test the limits of Mr. Holmes’s patience,” Toshiko says grimly, “but he knows exactly when he has to back off.”

“Sherlock, backing off?” John shakes his head in disbelief. “I find _that_ really hard to imagine.”

“You’ve never seen Mr Holmes truly angry,” Tosh says in a strangely flat voice.

“Have _you_?” John asks with a frown.

“Once,” Toshiko replies, “and I hope I never will again. It gave me nightmares, and I wasn’t even the one he was angry with.”

“So I can be grateful when he’s just the ruthless, manipulative bastard as usual?” John asks. “Sometimes I wonder what I have done to end up as a pinball between the Holmes brothers, holding their proverbial rackets.”

“You can be grateful that Mr. Holmes sees you as _useful_ ,” Toshiko counters. “He even likes you, as far as he can like anyone. That can change, though, should he no longer find your influence beneficial for Sherlock.”

“And then what?” John isn’t really scared, although he probably should. But he’s realised that the only way to deal with Mycroft Holmes is _not_ to show fear in his presence; or on the computer screen on which he’s probably watching them at the moment.

“Then, if you’re _very_ lucky, you’ll be discarded,” Toshiko replies in utter seriousness. “You must understand that – while he carries the fate of the whole nation on his shoulders – Sherlock is the only _person_ he really cares for.”

“I know he does,” John remembers the lengths Mycroft would have been willing to go, just to cover Sherlock’s involvement in the Bond Air fiasco. Having one crippled Army doctor removed from the game would be child’s play for him. Then a thought occurs to him. “Hey, are you supposed to talk about these things with me?”

“Of course not,” Toshiko gives him her best are-you-an-idiot?-look. “But I thought I’d warn you. So I caused a temporary disturbance in the surveillance cameras, which should end in about thirty seconds. Kiss me.”

John nearly chokes on his tea. “What?”

“We need to give the surveillance team an idea what were we doing while they couldn’t see us. Preferably a false one, so kiss me!”

And as John is still too shocked to act, she grabs his face in both hands and snogs him within an inch of his life, just as the surveillance cameras blink back to life.

They spend the night on Toshiko’s sofa, watching crap telly and occasionally snogging, to entertain the surveillance teams, until they fall asleep, still fully clothed. John’s only regret in the next morning is that it was all fake.

  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
(1) Toshiko’s metaphor is a quote from “The Rose Rent” by Ellis Peters.   
The part about the home-grown terrorist group is an idea borrowed from the ilovemycroft website, elaborated by wellingtongoose in the article “Checkmate – end game”.


End file.
